Her marriage looked so loving her pals nicknamed her Ms. Turtle Dove. But it was a facade, the young Newport Beach socialite says now. "I could relate when I saw Loni Anderson and Burt Reynolds on the cover of People magazine and everybody was shocked that they were splitting up. That's how it was for me. "I was the perfect wife. He was the perfect husband with the perfect job. We had the perfect child, the perfect home on the water--the perfect marriage." But not really.

She turned the pillbox hat into a sensation, favored simple Givenchy dresses that were copied the world over, had perfect posture and carried extra nylons at all times in case of a run. In short, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis had style, and, although she passed away last year, women continue to copy her look. This spring they're donning simple chemise dresses, boxy suits, narrow-fitting pants and oversized sunglasses, all inspired by a woman known simply as Jackie.

Booksellers stock new works in all sorts of sections--biography, new fiction, African American titles and even one big department we've seen called People. What they really need is a section called the Kennedys. Another wave of titles about President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis is reaching stores.

December 17, 1993 | REBECCA HOWARD, SPECIAL TO THE TIMES; Rebecca Howard is a regular contributor to The Times.

The opulent Oscar Wilde advised following the Three Bs when making a toast: "Begin, Be Brief and Be Seated." Good advice, but maybe not enough advice when considering making an actual toast. The holidays, particularly New Year's, seem to be a time of wishing well for the future, of proposing a toast. So how do you do it? It's more than standing up and loudly declaring, "Here's mud in yer eye!"

Is there a more content human on the planet than the appreciated eccentric? It's a tough station to attain. One can be eccentric and be considered an annoying loony, or one can be appreciated for being excruciatingly dull and colorless. But the person who can inspire admiration and respect for acting like a full-steam gonzo crackpot has got it made. People like Robin Williams and Mick Jagger and Madonna know this.

As the dust settles from legal decisions involving the president of the United States and the Army's top-ranking enlisted man, women around the country are debating the implications of the highest-profile cases to surface since the phrase "sexual harassment" entered this nation's legal and cultural lexicon. Will the military ignore future accusations of misconduct because Sgt. Maj. Gene C. McKinney last month was cleared of all but one count against him?

During an official trip to India in 1962, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy wore an Oleg Cassini dress and coat of apricot silk for a daytime boat ride on Lake Pichola. "This ensemble brilliantly served Mrs.

In July of 1992, California Assembly Speaker Willie Brown praised Hillary Rodham Clinton for inspiring women "to be full participants in the power decision-making process instead of the Junior League." But the Junior League, an international women's service organization with 190,000 members, was not amused. So Brown, a powerful Democrat, sent a letter to the group, explaining: "My comment was an allegorical statement."